1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a caries detector for the selective dyeing of dental caries which enables the same to be accurately detected in the treatment of decayed teeth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the treatment of diseased teeth, it is necessary to completely eliminate the carious portions from the teeth. On the other hand, it is undesirable to cut and eliminate the sound portions of the teeth at the same time. Heretofore, the carious portion of a decayed tooth has been differentiated from the sound portion of the tooth by virtue of the difference in hardness between sound and decayed portions or by the difference in color between sound and decayed portions which results from the spontaneous discoloration of the carious portion of the tooth. These differences, however, do not show a clearly detectable boundary between sound and decayed areas, and in the final judgement, the dentist must rely upon his experience to discern the boundaries of the decayed portions of a tooth. Thus, excessive cutting has generally been practiced because excessive cutting which extends even to the sound dental portion is preferred to the leaving of an uncut area in the carious portion. Recently, however, dental practitioners are increasingly believing that it is important to preserve the sound dental portions of a tooth as much as possible, thus minimizing the sacrificing of decayed teeth, and to avoid exposure of the dental pulp by cutting and eliminating the portions of the tooth near the dental pulp. A need therefore, exists for a detecting reagent which accurately detects only the carious portion of a tooth which is to be eliminated. Reagents containing basic fuchsin are already known as detecting reagents (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 38428/1976). However, the known reagents are undesirable because of their suspected safety.